No trace of the old Perry’s Grove Pavilion exists now. The site–located near the intersection of Slocum Road and Hathaway Road at what is now a New Bedford Country Club parking lot–shut down in 1959, and the remaining buildings were destroyed in a fire after the property was sold.

Perry’s Grove hosted annual clambakes between 1884 and 1959, and was originally ran by Abraham Perry and his family. Through old newspaper clippings and genealogy records, Dartmouth Historical & Arts Society President Robert Harding was able to track down some history of the turn-of-the-century haunt, but it wasn't easy due to lack of living heirs.

“There’s not a lot of stuff available about [the clambake]. I got most of what I have from the families,” Harding said.

Marie Bates ran the clambake alongside her family from 1945 to 1959. As a member of the final family to own Perry’s Grove Pavilion, she recounted stories of the Dartmouth tradition at the DHAS meeting on August 28.

The more than 1,000 attendees would often bring their own alcohol to enjoy with their clams, but after too much to drink, they’d sometimes end up at neighboring homes to evade lines for the bathroom, Bates said. It wasn’t unusual for Bates to find people sleeping in neighbors’ flower gardens, she added.

One year, Bates said a guest had had too much to drink and became nauseous. He ended up dropping his pair of dentures down the toilet, she said.

“My father-in-law went and dug up the cesspool, and the guy got them back. They were very expensive then,” Bates said.

The Bates family bought the property in 1945, from the Macavory family. At the height of its popularity in the 1940s and ‘50s, the site would host three clambakes a week during the summer—one on Wednesdays, one on Saturdays, and one on Sundays, said Bates. Weekday parties would attract 20-40 people, she said, but more than 1,000 would come on the weekend.

The Bates family would feed 20 people with a bushel of clams, said Bates, and the event also catered to large outings for local businesses and civic organizations.

Harding had discovered an article dating to the August 13, 1905 Boston Herald. The article relayed how the Bay State Automobile Club had made the journey from Boston to Dartmouth for a clambake. The troupe of 16 vehicles included a 35-horsepower Locomobile, a 35-horsepower Colombia, and an 11-horsepower Morris brand, he said. The vehicles travelled from the Hotel Lenox in Boston, through Forest Hills, Mattapan, Brockton, and Taunton before arriving, said Harding.

The last ever Perry's Grove clambake was held on August 30, 1959. The price to attend was $2.50, said Harding. Just several months after the clambake, the property was sold to the nearby New Bedford Country Club.